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Why are most houses so badly designed?

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  • VimFuegoVimFuego Frets: 15476
    our house is 400+ years old, one thing's for sure, they didn't take into account when they were designing it was how easy would it be to get a guitar in case and an amp from an upstairs practise room, down a long back passage (ooer etc) and out the back door. Madness I tell you.

    I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.

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  • @VimFuego funny thing is, I've noticed that (in houses I can't afford) there is way more useable space in the thatch'n'beams ones then ever there is in a similarly-priced modern one with similar ground footprint

    whereas in houses I CAN afford it doesn't matter whether it is old or new, there still isn't enough useable space ;)
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  • SkippedSkipped Frets: 2371
    I hear ya.

    So who designed the "semi-detached house"?



    Are you going to put the 2 lounges and the 2 main bedrooms right next to each other? WTF?


    "Yes I am. It will be just like a mirror image."


    What about noise?


    What noise?


    Lovemaking


    Yes but.......the design is just like a mirror image It is like a photograph of a Mountain reflected in a Lake.


    Why didn't you put the 2 staircases next to the freaking party wall to act as a noise barrier? You have put the 2 staircases on the freaking external wall. Have you ever been to a Party? You say House Designer. I say Gross Vagina.


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  • OctafishOctafish Frets: 1937
    Houses in this country are built purely for a profit purpose. It's a seller's market and there is not enough housing stock, hence your average house builder couldn't really give a shit about what they're like to live in and is most concerned with how many they can cram into a plot and what's the cheapest materials/construction they can get away with.
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  • OctafishOctafish Frets: 1937
    @VimFuego funny thing is, I've noticed that (in houses I can't afford) there is way more useable space in the thatch'n'beams ones then ever there is in a similarly-priced modern one with similar ground footprint

    whereas in houses I CAN afford it doesn't matter whether it is old or new, there still isn't enough useable space ;)
    Due you mean the almost impenetrable maze of roof timbers in a lot of modern houses? Usually due to a combination of using cheap heavy concrete roof tiles and cheap flimsy roof timbers which necessitates all the extra reinforcement. They also angle the pitch on a lot of modern houses quite steeply to cope with this issue.
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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    My house is near perfect. Detached house built by small building company in 1929. Nice big rooms throughout, proper utility room for washing machines, freezers, a study, dining room, lounge with hi-fi (no TV), kitchen with seating area and a connected lounge where the TV is located, two bathrooms, but no en suite (I had an en suite in a Bovis home back in the 80s and wasn't impressed with the steam and condensation)  a garage and gardens in a quiet cul-de-sac with four similar houses.

    I just think some builders today are lazy. I've seen some new builds that are very good, but very expensive.

    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31368
    Skipped said:
    I hear ya.

    So who designed the "semi-detached house"?



    Are you going to put the 2 lounges and the 2 main bedrooms right next to each other? WTF?


    "Yes I am. It will be just like a mirror image."


    What about noise?


    What noise?


    Lovemaking


    Yes but.......the design is just like a mirror image It is like a photograph of a Mountain reflected in a Lake.


    Why didn't you put the 2 staircases next to the freaking party wall to act as a noise barrier? You have put the 2 staircases on the freaking external wall. Have you ever been to a Party? You say House Designer. I say Gross Vagina.

    Wis'd, I live in a semi and chose it among similar ones because the front doors were next to each other.

    It doesn't cost any more to build, putting the living rooms together is just plain stupid, my mother has to listen to her neighbour's TV all evening, then their bedroom TV at night. 
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  • chillidoggychillidoggy Frets: 17136
    I think that’s unless you build your own home, then it’s always a compromise. And even then it’ll depend on how deep your pockets are, so it still may not be perfect.


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  • strtdvstrtdv Frets: 2356
    That's part of why we went for a 3 bedroom rather than a 4 bedroom. The 4 bedroom houses in our development are the same floorspace, you just lose your ensuite and have smaller rooms. The 3-bed works much better.

    A lot of older houses have been extended or had rooms re-purposed over the years, often with a very modest budget each time, so you end up with significant compromises at the end. The really nice ones are no bigger, they've just had all the money spent at once so they're done properly.
    Robot Lords of Tokyo, SMILE TASTE KITTENS!
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  • LegionreturnsLegionreturns Frets: 7965
    edited December 2017
    You're just not getting this are you? 

    The correct way to live is with 2.4 children, a Mondeo on the drive and sitting eating a tv dinner watching your government / media mandated distraction reality tv pill. That is the only permissible hobby, apart from the weekly pilgrimage to the local retail cathedral complex to spend spend spend.

    You are breaking the rules. No looking while the powers that be get on with fucking us over!

    As you were

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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27345
    Fretwired said:
    My house is near perfect. 
    Our (last) house was near perfect.  In fact, I can't think of many ways in which the house could have been improved.

    But  we sold that one to move somewhere cold and damp.
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • BucketBucket Frets: 7751
    As far as I'm concerned, most new houses are badly designed from the exterior because they look like characterless boxes that make no attempt to do anything different or daring. I want to see houses being built again that look like this.

    http://www.wowhaus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/o1-2.jpg

    http://www.wowhaus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/mary1-1.jpg

    And from the inside, why can't we see big windows, feature staircases and wood panelled ceilings again?

    http://www.wowhaus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/s15.jpg

    http://www.wowhaus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/mary4.jpg
    - "I'm going to write a very stiff letter. A VERY stiff letter. On cardboard."
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  • chillidoggychillidoggy Frets: 17136
    I’ve got the Mondeo, but that’s it.


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  • Octafish said:

    Due you mean the almost impenetrable maze of roof timbers in a lot of modern houses? Usually due to a combination of using cheap heavy concrete roof tiles and cheap flimsy roof timbers which necessitates all the extra reinforcement. They also angle the pitch on a lot of modern houses quite steeply to cope with this issue.
    Tell me about it. My house is an early 1970s chalet style with flat-roofed windows sticking out of a steep roof. There's almost no room in the loft to wriggle while trying to service the ballcock in the water tank.
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  • Phil_aka_Pip said:
    There's almost no room in the loft to wriggle while trying to service my ballcock.
    Well it beats the normal "swinging a cat" ...what you do in the comfort of your own loft is your business

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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27345
    Bucket said:
    And from the inside, why can't we see big windows, feature staircases and wood panelled ceilings again?
    You can.




    As lomg as you've got the ££s to pay for it.
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  • Phil_aka_PipPhil_aka_Pip Frets: 9794
    edited December 2017
    @Bucket those houses look dreadful from the outside. tbh I don't like the insides very much either.

    This is nice but way way out of my league http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65755070.html#

    Much more modestly, see how this http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb376/musophilr/GoodFloorPlan.jpg

    has useable space on the ground floor for a music room and an equivalent amount of useable space upstairs for a lounge with hifi.

    Edit: although I'd like it bigger ;)

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  • BucketBucket Frets: 7751
    edited December 2017
    TTony said:
    Bucket said:
    And from the inside, why can't we see big windows, feature staircases and wood panelled ceilings again?
    You can.

    As lomg as you've got the ££s to pay for it.
    Oh believe me, if I ever win the lottery I'm having my dream house built - I know exactly what it would look like, how big it would be, what it would have in it and so on. First it was just in my head, but then I committed it to paper at some point last year when I was meant to be doing coursework. All I'd need is around a three-acre plot with some nice mature trees on it, somewhere not too far from London, and it'd be getting made. And it looks like a 1970s modernist dream palace. Phil would love it lol
    - "I'm going to write a very stiff letter. A VERY stiff letter. On cardboard."
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  • 57Deluxe57Deluxe Frets: 7329
    cos developers try to build 12 to the acre and now have to bend to local authority conditions to make some infrasructure compromises.
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  • I'm glad our Edwardian house hasn't been knocked around too much. I'm guessing the toilet at least was brought inside after the house was built in 1908, but the downstairs has survived relatively intact with no knock-throughs. I'm guessing that the downstairs toilet used to be the butler's pantry. Everything is nice and square, revolving around a central hall, the only downside to that being that you can never get far enough away from everyone else sometimes. For that I prefer Victorian terraces.

    The problem with most modern houses is that the builders don't seem to think you want to own anything which needs storing somewhere - books, clothes, etc. Also that you're so close to your other half that a 4'6" bed will do nicely thanks.

    We have a new estate nearing completion near us. There are some quite big houses being built close to the road - 4-bedders with integral garages. The space between the houses is shocking though, there's no way ladders are going up to the roof in that gap, and one of the houses has a window looking out on to the gap.
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